VCC Waikato Venture October 2025 by Vintage Car Club of New Zealand

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

. Well another month has gone, where I don’t know. They seem to move so fast. The club has purchased a container and placed it behind the club rooms. This container is for the parts shed. It will be used to put parts in when we are invited to clear out someone’s shed. Somewhere we can sort them, either for sale or move them to the parts shed. In the parts shed we are working to organise parts into an order that we can list on a computer, still a long way to go but we are progressing. As chairman, I would like to thank everyone who took part in daffodil day. We had approximately 240 cars turn up, which raised an amazing figure of $8276.00 for cancer.

We had a good turn out for the September club night. The guest speaker was Mike from the Menzshed talking about how they achieved getting the Cambridge Menzshed up and running, and the tasks they take on. It was good to see a couple of new members come along to the night, where they also received their name badges.

October club night we are planning something different. We are working hard to make this happen, hopefully it will come together. It was disappointing to have to cancel the ladies meander last week due to lack of entries. It would be good to see more members supporting club events. Time to fuel up and make new memories

Les King

CLUB CAPTAIN’S REPORT

Chris Hawkings

“The Road is Calling, and I must Go”

October

This month is all about SURPRISE

Come along to Club Night and be wowed – Wednesday 8 October

Sunday 19 Club Run is to Putaruru Timber Museum – Meet at the Lily Pad Café, Kaipaki Road, 10.00am for coffee and collect Run sheet for start at 10:30am Theme for the day is Trains prize for best dressed

Motorcycle Runs Saturday October 4 – Start 10:00am at the club rooms and head to Ngatea – Full details September Venture – Leg Over 28 October

November

Sun 2 is Awards Luncheon

Fill in Rally forms for Saturday 8 November – 2 wheel brake Rally – open to Veteran and Vintage – Start point is 287 Kaipaki Rd – Dress is matching period clothing Club Night Nov.12 – We are at the Velodrome, bring your car and park inside for Club photo, meeting and tour.

November 16 – Swap Meet at Karapiro Domain – Get your name on the roster

“

I love vintage cars because you can do so much more to them”

Events Ahead Home

Workshop / Parts Shed / Club Rooms open from 6:30pm . 2nd Wednesday of the Month Club Nights 7:30pm - Raffle $2.00 per ticket –cuppa

Sat 4 Motorcycle Run

Wed 8 Club Night: A surprise - Come and be wowed

Wed 15 Wednesday Wander

Sun 19 Sun Club Run Suggested Putararu Mill as the miniature railway and café are now open and complete

Tue 28 Leg Over Motorcycle Run

Sun 2 Awards club rooms luncheon

Sat 8 Veteran + 2 wheel brake +Vintage Rally

Wed 12 Club Night

Sun 16 Swap Meet Karapiro Domain

Wed 19 Wednesday Wander

Tue 25 Leg Over Motorcycle Run

Sun 7 Motorcycle Run combined with Club Christmas Picnic and Pot Lunch

Wed 17 Wednesday Wander

Tue 30 Leg Over Motorcycle Run

Events Ahead Away

Manawatu Motorcycle run - October 11

Saturday October 18– Hunua Spring Tour – Start at Ray Small Park, Papakura –9.30am approx. 70 miles

South Canterbury 120 years Veteran, Vintage, and Post Vintage –Feb 5-6 2026

Model T Ford Club 33rd National Rally - Feb 24–March 1 2026

Highland Fling: 31st-1st March 2026 (Te Awamutu based)

Vero International Rally Festival of Motoring -March 15 –21 2026

53rd Northland Far North Tour 2025 –October 31 to November 2

MOTORCYCLE REPORT

Past Events

Tuesday Legover August 26th : Lovely day, 10 bikes, Pizza and beer.

Coming events

Tuesday Legover September 30th : Meet at Café 9 Cambridge 10:30 for a backroad ride to Morrinsville Top Pub. If the weather is bad go straight to the Top Pub.

October 4th Saturday: Motorcycle run to near Ngatea to visit a fellow enthusiast’s shed. Meet at the VCC clubrooms Cambridge 10:00 for a 10:30 departure. A plotted route of approx 95km to the Wood Turners Café 3815 SH2. Those from the North can go straight there to meet for lunch before continuing to the venue. Possible stop at the Tahuna Tavern on the way back.

December 7th Sunday: A ride is proposed, from the clubrooms (I will plot an interesting route) to culminate in a visit to a car collection at Karapiro, combined with a branch car run and possibly a BBQ there.

On the radio recently, I heard a Dr of physics say that increasing speed by 20% means increasing energy by 44% and therefore increases risk by 44%. So if you go from 100kph to 120kph it’s a bit risky. Think of the risk at 200kph+…. Some people like risk.

I remember a fact I heard many moons ago that to go twice as fast in the same vehicle you need 6 times the power, mostly to overcome air resistance. So if you are riding an old bike with a 3 speed hand gearchange, minimising gearchanges, or going up hill, especially with a head wind, going into a racing crouch makes a big reduction in frontal area and helps maintain enough momentum to crest the hill and is kinder on the engine. Mark reckons it looks stupid but I still do it.

Steve Walter

WORKSHOP REPORT

Hi once again.

The Model AA truck is slowly being worked on and I see the motor is in place so hopefully by the time you read this, it is up and running sweet and sounding like a truck ie: no muffler. Bob is silently working away and making progress on the petrol pump restoration.

The hoist has had several vehicles on for different reasons, so this is good to see.

With regards to my request for a 4” Engineers Vice, my thanks go out to Bruce Gerring who has kindly donated one. Also we now have a Manual Chain Lifting Hoist. (from memory it’s a 2 Ton, I could be wrong) Unfortunately I do not have the name of the person who kindly donated it. If anyone wishes to loan any item from the workshop, they can contact a workshop committee person who will register their details in the Loan Book.

Just another reminder, any old Garage Memorabilia, especially from the 1950s – 1980s as well as any Flags, Signs, Placards, Vehicle Posters or Illuminated Signs featuring classic car brands would be really appreciated.

Thursday opening hours are from 9.30am to at least 2pm.

Workshop Sub Committee:

Jeremy Brook 021 152 0922

Bryan Cossey 027 410 7772

Graham Holmes 07 827 7341

Stan Richardson 027 233 4461

Graham Pate 021 280 1586

Terry Pidduck 027 2726 319

Cossey

SWAPMEET

Sunday 16 November 2025

Helpers Required

Club members are needed to help run the event at our annual swapmeet at Karapiro Domain. This is the clubs major fundraiser of the year, and is held in conjunction with the Waikato Vintage Tractor Club.

There will be three shifts. The first commencing at 5am in the morning with the next shift commencing at 7am. The last shift will begin at 9am and continue through until the end of the swapmeet.

Duties will include collecting the entry fees as cars come in the second entrance and parking of the sellers vehicles in an orderly fashion.

Drinks of coffee and tea will be provided, and if anyone wants to bring along cakes or biscuits, that would be appreciated.

Please contact Jeremy Brook on mobile: 021 152 0922 or email: jemandbarb@gmail.com

Waikato mentioned in branch Highlights from National Daffodil Day!

Waikato went big with an innovative hub-run format, launching from Morrinsville, Matamata, Cambridge, Te Awamutu, and Hamilton, and converging at their clubrooms.

Sponsored prizes secured from local businesses added excitement, with prize draws in each hub proving very popular. Despite fewer cars than in past years, their decision to raise the donation to $20 per vehicle delivered their best-ever result of $8,276. Waikato’s smart thinking, strong organisation, and commitment to excellence made this year’s rally one to be proud of.

Christmas Lunch

Sunday 7 December

SavetheDate!

Motorcycle run and Club Run. Both will end up at one of our members for a club lunch. The view is to die for, plenty of parking, and inside new shed if the weather is unpleasant.. More information to come in November Venture. This will be catered, so we will need numbers who will attend closer to the date.

Membership Subscriptions 2025-2026

1st November 2025-31st October 2026 Membership Invoices were emailed to all members who have email addresses approx 5-8th September. If you don't have an email address invoices will be posted direct to members.

Membership (Single) fee is $132.25 including gst.

Joint membership is $151.80 incl gst (total for 2 people)

Payment is due 20th October. If you have not got internet banking please contact our treasurer Jillian on 027 423 0608, Jillian will arrange with you to make a payment.

You can phone National (03 366 4461) VCC office, pay by credit card, there is a 2% fee using credit card.

Last year Members of the Waikato branch were so prompt with payments it made my job following up with members a lot easier.

It will be satisfying to have all members paid by 20th October or the latest 20th November. Having to ring members to remind them is time consuming. I know you will surprise me by paying early.

Thank you , Heather

Waikato Membership

hgboswell@outlook.com

021 684 938

To be continued in the next issue of Venture.

Members Cars

Love at first sight.

When I saw her my heart melted. Shapely, very attractive, an exciting topless side to her personality and my favourite colour blue. My partner had banned me from certain project opportunities. No more restoring caravans, no piano demolition and scrapping, no more shed building or wood collecting. Etc etc. When I saw the 1965 Morris 1000 convertible for $6000, I thought it was a scam. Obviously, everyone else thought the same. I rang the owner in Auckland and we drove up to check her out. When I got there the Indian owner showed me her failure sheet. I’ve always liked lists of things to do. Unless its in the house/kitchen /bathroom. This was a different kind of list. Everything on the list apart from the rearview mirror had a cross against it. This was the vehicle compliance sheet. And sadly, for the seller. His father had taken it out on one last jaunt and drove into a gate post and dented the wing really badly. I added up in my head how much I thought everything would cost and offered him $3000 for her thinking that he would refuse. It was a real shock when he said that he would take $3600 for her and deliver it on a trailer too. I took his driving licence off him as a guarantee to deliver, and paid him, and that was that. I gradually worked my way through the failure sheet and found quite a few new faults too. In the past someone had done a ‘ground up’ restoration. It meant that not a single nut or screw needed persuasion. I took the back axle off and redid all of the bushes and painted the springs. Took all the Armstrong shock absorbers off for a clean and refill with oil. All the brakes and hubs. Etc, etc. Spending many hours under her redoing some of the underseal. I found some 40year old new stock cross ply tyres for sale on the Morris owner’s website that had been in a shed, and later found a 20 year old maroon convertible hood that had been bought in error for $400. That was the easy part. I thought she was almost there apart from the rust. She had a couple of holes that needed welding and new seatbelts as the old ones were frayed. I had bought from Temu, a set of panel beating hammers/dollies for $28 and knocked most of the dent out of the wing and sprayed it. The next part of her reincarnation was the worst.

At Drivesure she failed on the new NZ coded seatbelts and the rust in the front wheel arch. They also wanted the indicator lights to flash on the speedo and her number plate light had blown. I had felt more confident about her because she had passed a mock wof the day before. There followed lots of jumping through hoops for her. The seatbelt certifier failed her after taking my $380 and told me to ‘F’ off and go somewhere else. I went back with a copy of his rule book on where the seatbelt anchors should be and he apologised and after a further $299 he passed the seatbelts. The rust certifier was the worst part of the story. He found the hole in her wheel arch and gave me instructions on grinding it, having it welded and then returned to him for inspection and then away again to be painted. I did all of this after sending copies of the welders’ qualifications. On the next visit his large screwdriver came out and he started peeling back some metal on the chassis rail. He had checked the car’s history of 4 failures in Auckland for rust and decided to do some digging. The welder did a fantastic job on replacing a lot of the chassis rail but charged $3000 for the pleasure. It took him 2 days. On the supposedly final inspection where he checks the repainted areas and also the battery box, he sauntered over to his tool box and got his screwdriver out again. I told him to put her on the ground as we had done all that he had asked, and digging around for more rust wasn’t on the cards. He refused to sign her off or give her rust certificate and told me to find another certifier as he was quite within his rights to make me sandblast the whole chassis. Of course, the other certifiers refused as they were all in the same club. Eventually as I volunteer at the Citizens advice Bureau I filled out the online form for the dispute’s tribunal. He got the information from the Disputes Tribunal on a Monday and signed her off on Tuesday. Thanks to a lot of help from Graham in the club and a few parts and support from the car club members she’s my fun, economical daily driver and my second best girl.

A BIG WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS

We hope that you will enjoy the club and it’s many activities

Peter Kelly –1929 Ford Model A Kevin Ngakai - joint member with Helen Ngakai –1955 Zodiac, 1955 Mk1 Consul Convertible and 1963 Falcon Futura Convertible Jon Van Den Berg –1972 Yamaha Tx650

Come along to the club nights on the second Wednesday of every month and/or Thursday morning workshops and morning teas

Keith Rogers (Waikato VCC Branch Member)

Members Receiving Awards

60 years:

Bob Townsend

50years:

Murray Ashby

Sharman Orr

35 years

Francis Mason

Kelvin Mitchell

25 years:

John and Karen Fitzwater

Peter Hastelow

Steven Payne

Trevor Pratt

Milton Shepard

Donna Storey

Award presentations are very important to members who have been financial for the number of years noted above. Waikato Members who would like to show their support and attend this luncheon please email Heather no later than 20th October for catering

Open one hour before club nights

Now open Thursday mornings 10am—12pm

Lots of parts including: wiper blades steering columns

lights gauges

generators carburetors

light bulbs wheel rims

gaskets bumpers

armatures alternators

axles distributor caps

Recent additions:

1957-1958 Borgward Goliath 1100 2 door kombi station wagon shed stored 40years, no major rust, 4 cylinder boxer engine, lots of parts from 2 other cars partially dismantled.

1929 Chev light truck 6 cylinder totally dismantled, panels in poor condition, remains of Colonial cab, extra gearboxes and parts, not complete.

1935 Willys 77 parts - front hubs, wheels and differential spares for sale.

Parts Shed Committee

Alan Sharp

Les King

021 02553853

021 1909506

Clive Plumtree 07 8275973

Terry Pidduck

Graham Holmes

Robert Johnson

027 2726319

07 827 7341

027 4839825

CLUB BADGES FOR SALE

These are available to view and buy at Club Nights Lapel or Cap Badges - enamelled

each Car Bumper Badges - cast in brass

DO YOU HAVEACAR, CARS, MOTORBIKES OR PARTS THATYOU WISH TO SELL?

Parts

The information in this newsletter and on the club’s web site, is supplied as a service to club members. Articles and other copy of interest are always welcome and encouraged. The opinions expressed in this newsletter and on the club’s website are those of the author alone. Neither the club nor any of its officers accepts responsibility for the accuracy of any statements or opinions.

Notice

We are getting non members ask about putting an advert in the For Sale or Wanted section of the Venture. After a discussion with the committee it has been decided that an advert from a non Waikato VCC member will incur a $15.00 charge. This will cover a three (3) month insertion. After the three (3) months it will be automatically withdrawn.